Mmm, Cookies ‘n Creme

Philosophy Cookies n’ Creme Shower Gel ($16.00 for 16 fl. oz.) is a new-for-fall scent that is as sweet as you’d expect it to be. It starts with a very basic sweet vanilla aroma, but then the deliciousness of chocolate cookie comes through; it’s exactly what I remember Cookies ‘n Creme ice cream smelling like.

This is a rather foodie scent, and as such, quite sweet, but I don’t find it synthetic or overwhelming, but this is not a scent that lingers. One of my favorite things about Philosophy’s shower gels is that they smell amazing when you’re using them but don’t leave you smelling like food all day. It lathers up incredibly well, and a little dab will do you–probably a quarter’s worth (maybe a touch more) should get you sudsy in no time.

Before the boy started stealing my bath products (OMG, he uses TWO PUMPS of my Kate Somerville cleanser–I use half a pump, AHH!), a bottle like this would last me months. With his “generous” usage, a bottle lasts about a month and a half. And can I just say I can’t wait until full-sizes of Pumpkin Spice are back?

If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ!

Product: 28/30

Value: 8/10

Ease of Use: 4/5

Packaging: 4/5

RECOMMENDATION: Personally, I like it, but it’s not my all-time favorite scent, but I do love the formula and all that. If you like sweeter, foodie scents, you might like this one!

Video Review: Philosophy Cookies ‘n Creme Shower Gel

Who doesn’t love Cookies ‘n Creme? What, you don’t? Are you serious? Can you make me not like Cookies ‘n Creme, ’cause my waistline would appreciate it? I will probably do a regular review write-up for this, though I’ve reviewed so many shower gels before, and this one smells as the name describes, so there’s really nothing to report… but anyway, video! I can’t believe I spent five minutes talking about shower gel, sigh!

If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ!

Product: 27/30

Value: 8/10

Ease of Use: 4/5

Packaging: 4/5

RECOMMENDATION: If you like sweet scents, you might like Cookies ‘n Creme!

Shaun, aka The Tech Guy, aka my boyfriend, is here with another must-read “manly” review. He’s twenty-seven with normal-to-dry skin and suffers from no more acne (much to my envy!). Lately, he’s been smelling a lot like generic man. Which is that “man” scent I’ve come to identify with men’s body washes these days.

Shaun enjoys long walks on the beach, vegging out on the couch watching chick flicks, and cuddling with Mellan. Or maybe not! He handles all the behind-the-scenes action here at Temptalia, from tech support to server woes to being my shoulder to cry on.

Names

Dial might have a history setting mark in this category. The total name of this product is as follows: Dial Nutriskin with Fruit Oil Ultra Hydrating Body Wash Cherry Seed Oil & Mint. About three of those words mean anything to me and one of them is “&.” Old Spice on the other hand is much more mundane: Old Spice Swagger Body Wash. Dial should cut down on the words, but maybe that appeals to the female crowd? Do you ladies like to read while you wash your body? I prefer to look forlornly at my stomach wondering why there isn’t a six pack of abs there.

Grade

Dial: A Bronze Star

Old Spice: A Silver Star

Packaging

Old Spice’s packaging once again employs the grips on the side where you’d never grip the bottle while in usage, and it also feature a gray dot in the middle of its otherwise mostly red packaging. I’ve been staring at this dot for an hour… WHY ARE YOU THERE DOT? WHAT’S THE POINT OF YOU?! YOU SHOULD NOT EXIST!!! On my bottle, the label is not smooth on the bottle. There’s a wrinkle on it, and it’s driving me nuts, so it gets -1 point already. Dial’s packaging shape is curvy and very feminine. I like the label with the liquid and the cherry. DON’T JUDGE ME! It has no grips on the bottle and gets very slippery when wet.

Grade

Dial: 4/5 Points

Old Spice: 3/5 Points

Lather and Smell

I’m tired of beating this dead horse about male body wash and general scents of male products, but it doesn’t smell like anything but generic man smell!@$ I wish I had a better way to describe it. Dial on the other hand smells pretty synthetic. Like someone in the lab doctored up what they think cherries smell like and threw it in a bottle. I got no mint scent from it. Both lather up nicely, but Old Spice’s bottle seems conducive to over usage due to its “manly” spout.

Grade

Dial: B-

Old Spice: B

Ingredients

These days you expect to find the declaration of independence on the back of every bottle of anything, but in this case Old Spice actually has a respectable amount of ingredients in its body wash. Dial, on the other hand, has an ingredient list that eclipses the length of the last Harry Potter book. What is also entertaining is that Dial has to use a very tiny font size to even fit the list on the bottle, while Old Spice actually uses one that is legible without a magnifying glass.

Grade

Dial: Two Thumbs Down

Old Spice: One Thumb Up, One Thumb Turned Sideways

Final Grade

Dial: 70%

Old Spice: 71%

Recommendation: I wouldn’t really recommend either of them, although, they are both serviceable, but I’m running back to my Celebrate Love Shower Gel.

See another photo…

]]>http://www.temptalia.com/body-wash-face-off-old-spice-swagger-vs-dial-nutriskin-cherry-seed-oil-mint/feed15Philosophy Shower Gels: The Good, The Bad, The Delicioushttp://www.temptalia.com/philosophy-shower-gels-the-good-the-bad-the-delicious
http://www.temptalia.com/philosophy-shower-gels-the-good-the-bad-the-delicious#commentsFri, 11 Jun 2010 12:00:17 +0000Christinehttp://www.temptalia.com/?p=23527Philosophy Shower Gels: The Good, The Bad, The Delicious Shaun, aka The Tech Guy, aka my boyfriend, continues to enjoy his romp here on Temptalia! He’s twenty-seven with normal-to-dry skin and suffers from no more acne (much to my envy!). Since I have a thing for Philosophy Shower Gels, inevitably, he gets into them and […]]]>

Philosophy Shower Gels: The Good, The Bad, The Delicious

Shaun, aka The Tech Guy, aka my boyfriend, continues to enjoy his romp here on Temptalia! He’s twenty-seven with normal-to-dry skin and suffers from no more acne (much to my envy!). Since I have a thing for Philosophy Shower Gels, inevitably, he gets into them and goes through them in record time. (No, seriously, if it was just me, a bottle will last me half a year or more. I don’t know, I’ve never gone through one before moving in with this guy!)

Shaun enjoys long walks on the beach, vegging out on the couch watching chick flicks, and cuddling with Mellan. Or maybe not! He handles all the behind-the-scenes action here at Temptalia, from tech support to server woes to being my shoulder to cry on.

After tackling extra-terrestrial life in my last review, it is time to get back down to earth. However, I will stick with the same brand and take on Philosophy’s Shower Gel Collection. This is definitely not a Man’s product. With flavors like Raspberry Sorbet, Unconditional Love, and Orchid Blossom, I don’t recommend walking onto the job site smelling like Cherry Angel Food Cake.

I guess what I don’t understand about these body washes is why you’d want to torture yourself with these delicious smells. Every time I find myself half asleep and taking a whiff of Classic Fudge Cake, I find that half of the bottle has gone missing and my mouth tastes like soap. I don’t really know what happened, but I’m sure it’s not good. Next thing you know I’m sneezing, and bubbles are coming out of my nose! What’s with this product?!

You also have to be careful around your dog when you are using these. He starts to get this look in his eye like he’s debating whether he can take you down without too much trouble. If they come out with steak-flavored body wash then I’m for sure going to be dog food.

Some smell exactly as the packaging states. Others, however, do not smell at all as what they advertise. We have one that’s called Gingerbread Man, and let me tell you, it doesn’t smell at all like gingerbread. In fact, it smells exactly like diet cola! And I can’t tell you how awesome it is to smell like diet cola. I wait until Christine is looking the other way and then I take a deep inhale of my forearm. It’s like heaven in a bottle! I cut soda out of my diet so long ago that I had forgotten how awesome soda smells. Oh, you bubbly fiend how I miss ye.

Onto the good! These soaps lather very well and that is basically my one criteria when it comes to body wash. If I don’t look like Mr. Bubble after lathering up then you don’t have any business being on my loofah! Yeah, I use a loofah. What’s the big deal?

However, a big gripe of mine is the packaging. After using up some of the bottle, it becomes increasingly difficult to squeeze the sweet smelling liquid out of its container. I’ve nearly popped a blood vessel trying to get the soap out of these darn bottles. We went as far as getting a pump for the bottle, but the pump has to be pumped twenty times to get a decent amount out. They use a different type of softer plastic on the smaller versions of these soaps, which is much easier to manage, so I don’t really get why they don’t use that on all of their products.

RECOMMENDATION: Great lather but not great for any man unless he really likes Classic Fudge Cake. Be weary around animals and any other hungry people that aren’t offended by cannibalism.

Here are some products I’ve tried in the past few months with reviews done all quick-style

China Glaze Carnival Lights Nail Lacquer ($3.50) has a medium pink jelly base with silver micro-glitter and larger silver hexagonal glitter. It doesn’t go opaque on my nail, as you can still see the tip of it a bit. Above is two coats.

Lancome ‘Color Design’ Cream Eyeshadow ($22.00) came in three shades: Garter Belt (deep burgundy with red shimmer), Haute Smoke (soft taupe brown with multicolored shimmer), and Pink Lace (a milky pale pink). These lasted on my lids well (until I took it off, so about eight hours or so), though they are advertised to last for sixteen hours (I don’t think I usually wear my makeup for much more than eight hours!).

Philosophy Candy Cane Shower Gel($16.00) smells exactly as advertised — like the peppermint-y candy canes of the holiday season. Lathers up quite well, as the rest of their shower gels do.

Philosophy Have a Cherry Christmas Shower Gel ($16.00) lathers up nicely and smells like slightly sweetened cherries that still have that tartness to them. The Muse has a more in-depth review if you’re curious. I love me some Philosophy Shower Gels, but how many times can I tell you that? Ha!

Holiday Spice and Everything Nice is kind of a holiday-esque spicy scent blend with a citrus-y feel. I found it definitely had a slight orange-y citrus scent to it, amongst the holiday spice. I can’t really describe what it smells like, except Christmas, to me. Philosophy doesn’t do much better, as they describe this scent as, “a sensational blend of citrus and all your favorite warm holiday spices, created to heighten your holiday experience and give you the warm-fuzzies.”

I found that that the Lip Shine had a stronger scent than the shower gel, and like most Philosophy shower gels, the scent doesn’t linger much further than the bathroom. (This is good for me, since I usually use a scented body lotion or perfume, so I’d rather not deal with how things layer.) Philosophy’s Lip Shines are non-sticky, slightly jelly-esque, and tend to be more shimmer than color. I didn’t notice much taste (more like tasteless) in the product when I licked my lips, though.

This set isn’t really a value set, because you don’t really save any money by buying the two products together, but you don’t spend more to get them together, either. Also, as far as I know, you can only purchase full-sized shower gels, which are $16 for 16 oz., and this is half the size. Since I’m more of a “gotta try ’em all” person when it comes to Philosophy’s shower gels, I’m more apt to try out their kits. (But then again, I also collect their Lip Shines!)

I do feel like Philosophy keeps their products are a relatively affordable price point when it comes non-mass brands. One bottle of shower gel lasts me months, and I adore the variety of scents they offer.

If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ!

Product: 27/30

Value: 9/10

Ease of Use: 4/5

Packaging: 4/5

Recommendation: It’s not my favorite scent, BUT I think if you like Christmas-y scents, you may like this one. I love Philosophy shower gels, though, so if the scent is up your alley, I recommend it!